Impractical Jokers lived up to their name at Nottingham gig

The Tenderloins.

Amy Hirst

Published:17:50Thursday 12 October 2017

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For those who don’t know The Tenderloins are a New York-based comedy troupe, whose four members – Joe Gatto, James Murray, Brian Quinn and Sal Vulcano – are the creators, executive producers, and stars of truTV’s hit series, Impractical Jokers.

Impractical Jokers (shown in the UK on Comedy Central) follows The Tenderloins as they coerce one another into doing public pranks while being filmed by hidden cameras.

They have returned to UK shores this autumn with their Where’s Larry? tour and performed at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena this week.

I was keen to see what format the gig would take given that the TV show couldn’t really translate to stage.

After the introductions a few people in the audience were made examples of and the ribbing of a couple of them got everyone laughing.

What followed was mainly the foursome sharing stories from throughout their friendship. Some heavily scripted, some not so much.

Anecdotes from behind the scenes also featured heavily and were always going to go down well with an audience who didn’t stop laughing from start to finish.

The scripted parts of the show stood out like a sore thumb at times but this only made the gang’s chemistry even more apparent when they went off course and ran with it. The freestyling elements of the show were genuinely hilarious and there was no one in the Motorpoint Arena not full on belly laughing.

Audience participation was encouraged and special mention has to go to the brave lady who handed over her phone for a text roulette style prank that had hilarious consequences and really gave the troupe a chance to show off their quick wit and zany sense of humour.

Unseen video clips showing the boys at their best were also a huge hit with fans. Pranks for the show and off screen life were sampled and they all pretty much rolled into one.

The final clip was a trip down memory lane to series one of the hit show and left everyone grimacing and laughing in equal measure.

Having not known what to expect I was not let down and if the roars of laughter that filled the arena are anything to go by, no one else was either.